This invention relates to an electronic device comprising a generator of periodic signals and at least a frequency multiplier circuit for multiplying their frequency, formed on the basis of an  less than  less than EXCLUSIVE-OR greater than  greater than  gate which receives said periodic signals.
The invention finds highly significant applications notably in the field of telecommunications using high frequencies.
Such a device is known from the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,246. In this patent document it is proposed to use a phase shifting element which produces a delayed replica of the clock signal, so that an EXCLUSIVE-OR gate, by combining the clock signal and the replica, produces the signal at double frequency.
The device known from this patent document has the drawback that the replicas of judiciously phase-shifted high-frequency signals are not easy to realize, notably at high frequencies, and are thus costly to implement.
The present invention proposes a device of the type defined in the opening paragraph, which avoids the use of such phase shifting elements.
Therefore, such a device is characterized in that it comprises a frequency divider circuit connected between the output and an input of said EXCLUSIVE-OR gate.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, such a device is characterized in that said multiplier circuit has outputs for producing signals which are phase shifted by 90xc2x0 at the frequency of said periodic signals.
This embodiment offers the advantage that it becomes easy and less costly to realize demodulations known by the name of  less than  less than 0 demodulation greater than  greater than .
These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.